The Value of Appreciation: The People Who Change Our Lives

*Appreciation: gratitude; thankful recognition.

"Appreciation and gratitude are a must if you choose to become the architect of increased happiness and your own fulfillment."

                                                                                                                                             -Doc Childre

                Appreciation…what does it mean? There’s the dictionary definition, but simple reading the definition of appreciation isn’t going to change how we show appreciation.

                We had a great discussion in English class this week; it was about the values we value. One of my values was appreciation. Appreciation is important and in this blog I’m going to take my chance to appreciate the many people who have come into my life.

We meet new people in our life almost every day and we also have the people who stick with us for years, but never do we say, “I appreciate you for being in my life.” It seems to me that we don’t exactly show our “token of appreciation” to the people who matter. To admit, I have not told my parents, grandparents, teachers, friends, or coaches that I appreciate them being there for me. I have a best friend, although I won’t mention her name, who has been with me through thick and thin. She has done so much for me that it amounts to so much more than what I give to her. Lately, I have been acting kind of rude and unappreciative to her. I know that a best friend shouldn’t act like that, but I haven’t really thought about how much friends mean to you until they’re gone. So, if she’s reading this (and I hope she is), I’m sorry and I appreciate you for being in my life.

                I have this teacher, she’s kind of crazy but she’s hilarious! Her class is the climax of my day and honestly, I wish our class could just sit and chat with her all day. She teaches us life lessons and always has the BEST stories to go with them. She pushes us to use our creative minds to create something AMAZING! But overall, I have to say that she is one of the most extraordinary people I have ever met. I’m also pretty sure that my classmates would agree with me also. But I never noticed how much someone can make a difference in our lives by spending 55 minutes in class with her. I never realized how much she shows her care and her appreciation for her students being there. With that being said, I would just like to tell Mrs. Caffey and my classmates, I appreciate you all for being in my life. As a senior, I also have the best class sponsor in the world. She does so much for the senior class and I appreciate her for being in my life as well.

                Among the many values that we should have, I can whole-heartedly say that appreciation is one that we should all have at the top of our list. We should all remember that no matter how big or small of a change that someone can make in our life, we should all appreciate that they were there to spend time on us. So the life lesson for this week: show those you care about how much you appreciate them for being in your life.

The Moment of Change...

Although this story may be a little outdated and many people may already know, I would like to tell it from my side. The summer of 2011 brought many amazing friends and memories. It might have been the best summer that I’ve ever had. Returning to Holbrook from Tucson was sort of climatic, I had spent all summer away from my family and seeing everybody again was very exciting. Despite seeing my family for the first time, I couldn’t wait to see my friends. I was very excited for the first day of volleyball camp, it was the first time I was going to see all of my friends again. A little confession, I knew my legs were going to ache very much after the first day of volleyball camp…I mean volleyball is not a very easy sport at all! The University of Arizona’s food court had taken its toll on me and I was not prepared to work very hard. I was very determined to try as hard as I could and to my surprise, I had made it through the first day, but I was more tired than I had ever been before. The second morning of volleyball camp rolled around and I was not looking forward to it all. Surprisingly, it wasn’t bad at all, towards the end of the second morning session, I had seen the injury of a fellow teammate. I wished her well and we were off to lunch.
After coming back from lunch, we did a little conditioning and a lot more playing. We had gone into a hitting drill for a short time after conditioning. Endurance hitting was not at all my favorite; it made you so tired that it was a little hard to breathe afterward. A couple of groups had gone before it was me and my partner’s turn. Although I was never a good volleyball player, I had tried very hard to do my best. I ran to the baseline and back to the net, hit the ball and ran back to the baseline. I repeated this for another two or three times, I ran back up to the net and jumped to hit the ball. When I landed, my knee jerked back and POP! It was so loud, I think the people on the opposite court heard it. I tried to stand and walk it off like any other injury that I had ever had. When I tried to stand it didn’t want to bend or straighten, the pain was so unbearable and the swelling had started immediately. I wasn’t thinking about what could have possibly happened to my knee, I was thinking more about not crying or screaming from the pain. Walking was not an option, so a teammate and my coach were kind enough to help me off the court. All I was thinking was, how in the heck did that happen?  Sitting in the emergency room for a couple of hours had not been my plan at all. The doctor had seen me, took x-rays and put me in a brace and on crutches. All I had to do now was wait and wait for the following week when I was scheduled for an MRI. The MRI was a first time experience and it was loud. Then more waiting, the results of my MRI came in and the doctor told me,” Your anterior cruciate ligament is torn.” I know it may seem a little childish to cry at this point, but I did! As the tears ran down my face and as I tried choking back my sobs, all I was thinking was why? Why did it have to happen to me in my senior year? As I limped out of the doctor’s office, I was still crying thinking about how the surgery would go. After waiting a few more weeks, it was surgery day. I was scared out of my shorts; I am not a person who tolerates pain very well. The operating room was cold and the nurses were nice, but all of that wasn’t going to change how much pain I was in after surgery. The doctors woke me up after the 2 hour surgery and I was in recovery for an hour. After waking me up, I had excruciating pain in my left knee and I was crying harder than I had ever cried before. I was wishing that it would just go away. The worst part about this whole injury was it took just one split second for my body shift its whole functioning. I am currently still rehabilitating; I shouldn’t be but unfortunately I had missed a whole month of physical therapy and that has altered the functioning of my knee greatly.
The best thing about this injury was knowing that I have to work even harder at everything I do to avoid this injury from happening ever again, and despite this injury I know I still have amazing friends and family who support me in my athletics.